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Scrappy and I visited this place with some new friends - Mars Lander, Shush, Lowri to name but a few! Big thanks to them for inviting us to join them on what was a very fun explore

This place was MASSIVE, you could get lost in it. We had some close calls with people on the grounds, visitors to this site are not welcome and that's putting it mildly!

Luck was on our side that day and we got to see the majority of the site before a leisurely walk back to the car. In my opinion, this place is worth seeing for the rooftop views alone, they were spectacular

A little bit of history on the place:

The Grade 2 listed house is set in walled Venetian gardens of around 18 acres. the mansion, constructed in Wales in the 1870s. The stables are Grade 1 listed.

There are 122 rooms with 52 main bedrooms and quarters for 60 live-in servants.

The prodigious estate passed through various generations and still bares its coat of arms on the huge wrought iron gates.

During World War II it was used as a military hospital and it later became private Clarendon Girls' School.

In 1975 the hall was extensively damaged in a fire, forcing the school to close.

It was then restored and used as a conference centre. It was sold at auction in 2001 but a proposed redevelopment failed to materialise.

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Still an amazing looking site but as usual the downward slide is beginning. Hopefully get to see this one before it's beyond salvagable.

Makes me wonder, someone obviously went to the effort of finding out where this place is and going there, after being greeted with all that splendour who the fuck's first thought is to smash the holy shit out of it? I really struggle to get my mind around it sometimes, they really do need a good kicking in themselves. Never have I been involved with something that brings so much joy and heartbreak in such equal amounts.

Similar Content

Woolley Hall is a landscape park largely unchanged since 1800. The park is associated with a Jacobean Hall (dated to around 1635 with later alterations). Features include wooded pleasure grounds, a ha-ha, kitchen garden and ponds. The main house is Grade II listed and the courtyard is Grade II listed as being of Special Architectural and Historic Interest. Michael Wentworth began rebuilding Woolley Hall in 1635. The new Woolley Hall consisted of an 'H'-shaped building of moderate size. An east wing was added to the south front around 1680. The western wing was added during the mid eighteenth century. The eastern wings which form the rest of the present building were added in the early nineteenth century. The house is constructed of hammer-dressed sandstone, with a slate roof. There are four storeys including the attic and basement. Recently Woolley Hall went up for sale (2014) with a guide price of £3m from its owners, Wakefield Council. It was purchased in 2015 by new owners Commercial Development Projects (CDP). Plans were submitted (2016) for a hotel conversion for the Grade II listed building. (CDP) had put forward a proposal to create a 88-bedroom hotel, with function facilities to cater for 300 guests, spa treatment rooms and a gastro restaurant. But (CDP), sent an email to the council (2017) to say they have withdrawn the plans, but gave no explanation. In reaction to the withdrawal, assistant chief executive for resources and governance at Wakefield Council, Michael Clements said: “Wakefield Council agreed to sell Woolley Hall to a local developer last year. “The sale was conditional upon them developing the site into a boutique hotel. “Disappointingly, this deal has now fallen through. It is thought the proceeds would be used to re-invest council capital with a spoke person stating “The proceeds from the sale will be used to support the council’s capital investment plans across the district whilst it will also provide an annual budget saving to help us deal with the funding cuts imposed on us by the Government.”

The explore

The hall sits in pleasant surroundings and considering its recent endeavour has a boutique hotel it looks like efforts are been made to keep the hall well maintained. so... during a very windy February morning we moved in for a closer look. It was a little difficult to know where to start with this one as there were quite a few different access routes to the hall... Not knowing if we would be met by a security team we started documenting the building from a far whilst slowly moving in. The hall is quite something and reminded us of one of those old hammer house movies... albeit without Dracula. Moving slowly to the east side of the hall we came across what looked like an old boiler house... although four boilers remained only one was operational... perhaps part of the councils money saving scheme. Making our way though we entered the main hall.. Surprisingly most of the rooms original architecture is preserved with some rather exquisite flooring and panelling. although some of the rooms were accessible most of the doors were bolted and without wrecking what looked like a very well preserved old door we decided to document what we could and move on. Although the main hall was the main attraction we decided to explore some of the stable blocks to the north of the hall... It looks like this was used by council departments including Wakefield social services among others. Largely empty with left overs from its office days with little else on offer. There was some very unusual looking housing quarters although we could not find any entry to these building. On leaving the stable blocks we were met by a very pleasant care taker who gave us a little history whilst politely telling us to f*uck off...

Hey, guys here's my video report on the #post-apocalyptic #Camelot #ThemePark.
I've already made a photographic report with a full history etc so I won't bore you with that here as it is featured in the footage.

Visited with The Kwan on a rainy Saturday, some lovely bits left in the area and we missed quite a bit so theres always an excuse for a return visit.

Some History

The name Ratgoed derives from “Yr Allt Goed”, which means the steep, wooded hillside. Ratgoed mine was also sometimes known as “Alltgoed”. The Ratgoed slate workings lie at the head of what was originally called Cwm Ceiswyr but became known as Cwm Ratgoed because of the quarry. It lies north of Aberllefenni and northwest of Corris in, what is now, the Dyfi Forest.

The slate that was quarried at Ratgoed was the Narrow Vein. This runs from south of Tywyn, on the coast, to Dinas Mawddwy about 18 miles inland and follows the line of the Bala Fault. The Narrow Vein was worked along its length at places such as Bryneglwys near Abergynolwyn; Gaewern & Braich Goch at Corris, Foel Grochan at Aberllefenni and Minllyn at Dinas Mawddwy. The slate at Ratgoed dips at 70° to the southeast, the same as Foel Grochan.

Ratgoed was a relatively small working, it was worked from around 1840 until its closure in 1946.

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Oblivion State exists as an online forum to allow like minded individuals to share their experiences of Urban Exploration. We do not condone breaking and entering or other criminal activity and advise all members to read the FAQ articles about the forum and urban exploring in general. All posts are the responsibility of the original poster and all images remain copyright to the original photographer